Black Friday was a

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

on 30 September 2005 in the towns of Tura and

Williamnagar Williamnagar, formerly known as Simsanggre, is the headquarters of East Garo Hills district in the state of Meghalaya in India. History Williamnagar, the headquarters complex of the East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, one of the states of N ...

, in

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

when police shot and killed nine protesters during a protest against the state government's decision to transfer the education board from Tura to the state capital,

Shillong Shillong () is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India, which means "The Abode of Clouds". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in ...

. They were the single largest acts of violence in those towns since the

Indian Independence Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

. Friday, 30 September 2005 became known locally as "Black Friday". The decision of the state government (to move the education board) was extremely unpopular in the west of

because the area is predominantly made up of members of the

Garo Garo may refer to: People and languages * Garo people, a tribal people in India ** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe Places * Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia * Garo, Colorado * Garo Hills, part of the Ga ...

tribe, whereas the east of the state (including Shillong) is mostly inhabited by members of the

Khasi Khasi may refer to: * Khasi people, an ethnic group of Meghalaya, India * Khasi language, a major Austroasiatic language spoken in Meghalaya, India * Khāṣi language, an Indo-Aryan language of Jammu and Kashmir, India See also * Khasi Hills * Gh ...

tribe. Protesters complained that the transfer meant that the west of Meghalaya would be bereft departments, given all were transferred east.

References

{{reflist Meghalaya Riots and civil disorder in India 2005 in India 2005 riots